O nebber you fear, if nebber you hear We know de promise nebber fail, De yam will grow, de cotton blow, O nebber you fear, if nebber you hear So sing our dusky gondoliers; And with a secret pain, And smiles that seem akin to tears, We dare not share the negro's trust, Nor yet his hope deny; We only know that God is just, And every wrong shall die. Rude seems the song; each swarthy face, That laws of changless justice bind And, close as sin and suffering joined, Sing on, poor hearts! your chant shall be Or death-rune of our doom! BARBARA FRIETCHIE. Up from the meadows rich with corn, The clustered spires of Frederick stand Round about them orchards sweep, Fair as a garden of the Lord To the eyes of the famished rebel horde, On that pleasant morn of the early fall Over the mountains winding down, Forty flags with their silver stars, Flapped in the morning wind: the sun Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then, Bravest of all in Frederick town, She took up the flag the men hauled down; In her attic-window the staff she set, Up the street came the rebel tread, Under his slouched hat left and right "Halt!"—the dust-brown ranks stood fast. "Fire!"-out blazed the rifle-blast. It shivered the window, pane and sash; Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff She leaned far out on the window-sill, "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said. A shade of sadness, a blush of shame, The nobler nature within him stirred "Who touches a hair of yon gray head All day long through Frederick street All day long that free flag tost Ever its torn folds rose and fell And through the hill-gaps sunset light Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er, And the Rebel rides on his raids no more. Honor to her! and let a tear Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier. Over Barbara Frietchie's grave Peace and order and beauty draw And ever the stars above look down |